Lawyers for Umar Zameer are calling for a public inquiry into the actions of three Toronto police officers involved in his case – and the Ontario Provincial Police investigation that cleared those officers of wrongdoing.
A public inquiry is necessary to restore public faith in the process and in both police forces after the release of the OPP report earlier this week, defence lawyer Nader Hasan said.
“There’s two possibilities with respect to the OPP here: utter incompetence or something far worse,” he said in a news conference Thursday.
“And because we’ve been shut out of this process ... I don’t know what it is but I think we deserve answers and I think the only way to get those answers is through a public inquiry.”
Zameer was acquitted two years ago in the death of Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup, a plainclothes officer who was fatally run over in an underground parking garage at Toronto City Hall in July 2021.
Toronto police requested the investigation after the presiding judge suggested the three officers who were central witnesses in Crown’s case – Det. Lisa Forbes, Det. Const. Antonio Correa and Det. Const. Scharnil Pais – lied and colluded.
All three officers told the court that Northrup was standing in a laneway with his arms outstretched when he was hit. That narrative was contradicted by security video and the testimony of two experts, including one called by the Crown.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy instructed jurors to consider the possibility of collusion, and later wrote that the similarities between the officers’ accounts led her to the “inexorable conclusion that they not only lied, but they colluded to lie.”
The OPP report released Tuesday found no evidence to support charges of perjury or obstruction of justice, however, a conclusion based in part on the OPP’s own reconstruction and analysis of the crash.
Hasan denounced the report when it was released, then laid out a more detailed rebuttal Thursday, noting the OPP’s reconstruction of the crash is the same theory that prosecutors unsuccessfully pitched to the jury.
The finding that Pais and Correa had “limited opportunity” to collude is also factually incorrect, Hasan said, noting the two officers were together most of the night of the incident and later returned for a walk-through of the scene before writing their notes in the same room.
“This is not a fresh investigation. It’s advocacy on the part of the police dressed up as a fresh investigation,” Hasan said.
The report seems to insinuate “that everybody else got it wrong,” he said. “But it’s utterly baseless. It’s not grounded in any fact.”
The defence lawyer said the public needs to see how the OPP reconstructionist was selected and “what kind of influences were exerted on this expert.”
Police must release the OPP reconstructionist’s report, not just its conclusions, as well as all communications between OPP, Toronto police and the police union regarding the investigation, Hasan said in calling for an inquiry.
A spokesperson for the premier’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the possibility of an inquiry. OPP also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report was hailed as vindication Tuesday by police Chief Myron Demkiw and the president of the police union, Clayton Campbell.
Campbell urged Molloy to apologize to the officers, a request that was later amplified by Premier Doug Ford as he reiterated his love for police.
The chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court weighed in on the request Thursday as legal observers and civil liberties advocates continued to condemn what they described as an attack on the independence of the judiciary.
“When judges or juries make decisions at the end of a trial, they are final, subject to a party’s right to appeal,” Geoffrey B. Morawetz wrote in a statement.
“It would be inappropriate and unethical for judges to succumb to outside pressure to modify or qualify their decisions or reasons.”
The independence of the judiciary is “a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy,” Adam Weisberg, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, said in a statement.
“Judges cannot and should not change or apologize for their decisions based on requests from other branches of government or from witnesses in a case.”
Molloy made her remarks while carrying out her duties, and they were “grounded in evidence tested in open court within a jury trial,” Anna Wong, president of the Toronto Lawyers’ Association, said in an open letter.
“The jury’s verdict acquitting the accused – reached after hearing all the evidence and receiving careful legal instructions – represents the culmination of a constitutionally protected process,” she wrote.
“Respect for that process, including the distinct roles of judge and jury, is essential to the rule of law.”
Shakir Rahim, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s criminal justice program, said the calls for an apology are “wholly unacceptable.”
“No impropriety by the judge has been alleged or occurred. It is not the role of an elected official to quarterback a trial or the judiciary,” he said in a statement.
In a statement issued after Hasan’s news conference Thursday, Demkiw said the OPP conducted a “thorough, independent and professional” investigation that was done “transparently.”
The chief made similar comments as he faced a barrage of questions on the matter at an unrelated news conference later in the afternoon, but referred any questions related to the release of documents to the OPP.